The Gender War (The Gender Game #4)(93)

There was a flash of anger on Tabitha’s face, and I was suddenly incredibly glad I had come up with the idea of a hostage exchange. “Fine,” she spat. Nodding to the guards, she stepped aside and waited as the women and children were freed from their bonds.

My aunt was the first up, her eyes spitting daggers at the guards as she helped her daughter-in-law and the children up. Cad’s wife was crying quietly, but she didn’t put up much fight as my aunt steered her and the children toward me, silently urging them forward.

As much as I wanted to, I didn’t look at them—I couldn’t trust Tabitha not to do something to them. So I kept my eyes trained on her, steeling myself, pretending they didn’t exist.

They left quickly, and the courtyard fell silent for what was probably several minutes. I didn’t know how long it was. But in that courtyard, staring at Tabitha’s cold face, it felt like we waited forever. Finally, there was a burst of static followed by my aunt’s voice.

“Violet? We made it out the gates. There are no guards with us.”

I had to hope that the guards hadn’t forced her to say that. I held out my hand to the guard standing next to me, and, after a tight nod from Tabitha, he handed over the handheld. “Good. Keep driving—don’t wait for Cad, your husband, or myself, all right?”

“But how do I find them?” she asked.

“We’ll find you,” I replied, before dropping the radio back into the warden’s outstretched hand.

I risked a quick glance at Maxen, giving him a somber look. “Sorry,” I said. And at that moment, I meant it. The king, who’d been largely silent since we’d gotten to the palace, was making noises through his gag, the look on his face thunderous, his hands jerking in his bonds. On an impulse, as the guards began moving toward him, I reached up and yanked the gag from his mouth.

He sputtered for a moment, shocked, then quickly regained his wind. “You’re not sorry, you manipulative bitch,” he snarled at me. “You’re not sorry enough.” He raised his voice to carry across to where Tabitha waited. “And you, you fat, inbred cow! You disgust me. Trying to steal my kingdom out from underneath me! I demand to see Dobin! Show me that would-be king! I’ll tell that traitor what I do to people who stab me in the back!”

A thick smile curled across Tabitha’s face, perhaps a more terrifying sight than her usual anger. “You’re not in a position to be demanding anything, Your Majesty,” she said. “As far as the rest of the kingdom knows, you’re dead.”

She nodded to them and the two remaining guards—no doubt Dobin’s accomplices—seized the king and hauled him off, while he continued to shout obscenities. “Traitors!” he cried at them. “You’ll pay for this, you bastards!”

He was bustled off, leaving Tabitha and me staring at each other like two dogs about to quarrel over the same bone. Two rabid dogs.

Tabitha smiled at me and took a step toward my cousin and uncle. “We’re all alone now,” she crooned.

“Yes, well… your other two guards will be back soon enough,” I said, mirroring her movement closer. “Now, for the egg, you and I are going to leave with my family in the car I arrived in. Once we’re safe and sound far enough away, I will let you go with the egg.”

Tabitha flashed me a droll look and took another idle step closer to my family. “No, I won’t. I think you’ll give me the egg now, Violet.”

I shook my head. “Absolutely not. Need I remind you that this thing is rigged with explosives? I think I’ve got the better bargaining chip at this point.”

Tabitha shot me a taunting look. “No, you don’t. You came here trying to save them. You wouldn’t just blow them up. I let the women and children go because I didn’t want to hurt them—they’re really our kind, after all. But these two? These disgusting Patrian males?” She reached out and casually caressed my uncle’s cheek, her smile stained with bloodlust. “I just can’t wait to hurt them.”

I slipped my hand into my shirt pocket and pulled out a second detonator. “Don’t,” I said, my voice as hard as stone.

Tabitha gave me a knowing look, filled with some macabre form of pity, and then pulled out her knife. She slipped her hand under my uncle’s chin and jerked it up, baring his throat. I couldn’t help but look at him then—he kept quiet, but sweat dripped from his temples, and his eyes were wide with fright. Tabitha’s eyes never left me, wild with abandon, that sadistic smile on her lips.

“Just come with me,” I said.

“Better idea—give me the detonator, and I won’t do this…” Tabitha’s hand flashed out, her knife a silver streak in the air, and my uncle let out a scream, blood springing from a slash that ran across the side of his jaw and down the back of his neck. I couldn’t tell how deep it was from here, or whether it would be fatal… He tried to pull away from her, but Tabitha held him by the chin, licking her lips predatorily, blood beginning to drip onto her fingers as she turned back to me. “To your uncle,” she finished brightly.

I stared at my cousin and my uncle, feeling myself growing colder. My fear, my emotions, all of them were sinking deep within me, crystallizing behind a layer of cold flame. I met Tabitha’s gaze sadly and shook my head at her.

Then I pressed the button on the second detonator.